TROUT: Decline is man-made problem

Bob Smith is right in attributing the decline in trout numbers to lower river levels and water quality (Northumberland Gazette, October 4), but not to blame goosanders as well.

These beautiful waterfowl, which are now seriously declining in numbers, have eaten trout and other fish for countless millennia without threatening the fish population on which they depend for survival.

It would not be in their own interests to do so.

The scientific explanation for the decline is in climate change and pollution – basically man-made.